Musculoskeletal Injuries

What commonly causes a musculoskeletal injury?

Musculoskeletal injuries affect your muscles, bones, joints, nerves, and supporting tissues. The tissues that support your musculoskeletal system include ligaments, tendons, cartilage, and other connective tissues.

A few of the most common musculoskeletal injuries include:

• Sprained ankle
• Tendonitis
• Tendon tear
• Bursitis
• ACL tears
• Meniscus tears
• Rotator cuff tears
• Labral tears
• Tennis elbow
• Fractures
• Joint dislocations

These conditions typically occur following a sports injury, overuse injury, fall, or car accident. However, you can also develop a musculoskeletal injury from suddenly increasing the intensity of your activities or not using the proper technique during sports and work activities.

What symptoms develop due to a musculoskeletal injury?

No matter where your injury occurs, musculoskeletal injuries typically cause symptoms such as:

• Pain
• Swelling
• Bruising
• Joint instability
• Muscle weakness
• Tingling or numbness
• Limited movement
• Inability to use the injured part

When you suffer an acute (sudden) injury, pain and other symptoms rapidly appear. By comparison, your symptoms gradually develop when you suffer an overuse injury.

If you repeatedly perform the same movement, your soft tissues develop tiny tears. Getting rest between activities lets these tears heal. Without enough rest, the tears and symptoms gradually worsen until you end up with a full-blown rupture.

How are musculoskeletal injuries treated?

The first line of treatment includes limiting your activity, immobilizing the limb or joint, and taking medications to relieve the pain and reduce inflammation. As your pain improves, you start physical therapy to promote healing and restore strength and function.

If your pain doesn’t improve or the pain from your injury turns into a chronic (ongoing) pain syndrome, you need the treatments available at Michigan Advanced Pain & Spine.

When your pain persists, Michigan Advanced Pain & Spine offers a wide range of interventional procedures that effectively ease the pain and allow you to engage in the physical therapy you need to fully heal.

After a thorough physical exam and diagnostic imaging as needed, your provider may recommend treatments such as:

• Joint injections
• Medication management
• Epidural steroid injections
• Radiofrequency ablation
• Spinal cord stimulation
• Stem cell therapy
• Platelet-rich plasma (PRP)
• Nerve blocks
• Rhizotomy

Different interventional treatments target pain that originates anywhere in your body, offering relief from neck, back, knee, hip, shoulder, leg, and arm pain.

If you suffer a musculoskeletal injury and need help with your pain, don’t wait to schedule an appointment at Michigan Advanced Pain & Spine. Call the office or request a consultation online today.